Copyright Statement

Abstract

Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, or more popularly known by his
nickname Pak Lah, has secured his place in Malaysian political history
as the country’s fifth prime minister. Known for his affability, he was
welcomed into office in 2003 after the 22 year iron-fist tenure of his
predecessor Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. However, five years later he became
the country’s only prime minister who was forced to resign even after
winning a general election. Unlike many other countries, a mere victory in
Malaysia’s polls by the ruling National Front coalition or Barisan Nasional
(BN) is not seen as ‘good enough’. In Malaysian politics, the ruling party
judges its victory by whether or not, it gets the two-thirds majority in
parliament. Abdullah failed to reach this marker in the 2008 general
election. Ironically, in 2004, Abdullah’s BN had won by a landslide, taking
198 of 219 seats. In percentage terms, this translated into 90 percent of
the seats in parliament and was the largest victory ever for the governing
coalition. Although he was not expected to perform at the same level in
2008, it was not expected that the BN would lose its two-thirds majority.
In 2008, the BN won the general election by 58 seats, or 63 percent of the
seats. Within a year of the results, Abdullah was forced to retire and
hand over the reigns of the party and government to his deputy Najib
Tun Razak. He stepped down from office on 1 April 2009, after 1,979 days
in office.